The summit of Sternes in winter - 17th January 2010

The summit of Sternes in winter

The summit of Sternes (2320m) is located right above the cistern of Roussies (not visible in this image because it is hidden by the ridge that runs at the foot of Sternes from left to centre of the image). I mentioned yesterday that there was not much snow in the mountains yet. This is clearly visible here: the snow is present on the North facing slopes (all the slopes with snow in this photo) but it very sparse on the South slope (centre image from the summit down).

The foreground has a slightly different explanation: it is right on a small flat summit in a very windy spot so the snow would normally get blown off before it gets a chance to accumulate.